little things i'm excited about. little thing #1.

little thing #1: the wood our crib is made of. 
never thought that wood, of all things, would be exciting. go figure. basically we wanted a good, safe crib that wouldn't break the bank.  one place we started looking was at pottery barn kids because ryan's gf could get us a discount, but when katherine and i checked out the goods, nothing quite fit what i had in mind ...  (mostly because even with a 40% discount, none of  their cribs seemed to outshine anything else i'd seen, and even with the pricebreak, they still were not any particular bargain ... there were some on the website that looked better but then the whole shipping thing, and using wendy's discount when she is clearly not pregnant herself...). so after turning back to the internet and doing some research back and forth with my dad, we decided on a crib made of rubberwood that they carry at babies r us (though note their furniture dept. is really difficult to work with, at least it was better than working with courtney's plumber).

RUBBERWOOD!

"Rubberwood is often the most misunderstood species of wood in the furniture industry...In fact, rubberwood is one of the more durable lumbers used in the manufacturing of today's home furnishings.

As a member of the maple family, rubberwood has a dense grain character that is easily controlled in the kiln drying process. Rubberwood has very little shrinkage making it one of the more stable construction materials availabe for furniture manufacturing.

Like maple, rubberwood is a sap producing species. In the case of maple, it is sap; in the case of rubberwood, it is latex. Rubberwood produces all the latex used in the world for all rubber based products.

There is one more important feature of rubberwood that is very important in today's world. Rubberwood is the most ecologically "friendly" lumber used in today's furniture industry.

After the economic life of the rubber tree, which is generally 26-30 years, the latex yields become extremely low and the planters then fell the rubber trees and plant new ones. So, unlike other woods that are cut down for the sole purpose of producing furniture, rubberwood is used only after it completes it's latex producing cycle and dies. This wood is therefore eco-friendly in the sense that we are now using what was going as waste."

so not only will the crib be sturdy, but eco-friendly too.  and, as i just learned, is also a remnant of what is 'the precursor to the condom' ... of sorts. which makes me laugh ... regardless, it is a crib we can feel good about having in our home!

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p.s. we finally placed the order last weekend ... and should have it in two weeks or so ... yes the baby is technically due before that ... but who needs a crib when you have have a pack-n-play to use as a bassinet? 

p.p.s. i went to the doctor yesterday and i have not started to dilate yet.  while you can go from 'nothing' to labor in the span of a day, it still made me feel less stressed about an early arrival.  we even talked about how long we'd try to let her stay in there ...